A Mission Statement for the IETF
RFC 3935
Document | Type |
RFC - Best Current Practice
(October 2004; No errata)
Also known as BCP 95
Was draft-alvestrand-ietf-mission (individual in gen area)
|
|
---|---|---|---|
Author | Harald Alvestrand | ||
Last updated | 2015-10-14 | ||
Stream | Internent Engineering Task Force (IETF) | ||
Formats | plain text html pdf htmlized (tools) htmlized bibtex | ||
Stream | WG state | (None) | |
Document shepherd | No shepherd assigned | ||
IESG | IESG state | RFC 3935 (Best Current Practice) | |
Action Holders |
(None)
|
||
Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
Telechat date | |||
Responsible AD | David Kessens | ||
Send notices to | (None) |
Network Working Group H. Alvestrand Request for Comments: 3935 Cisco Systems BCP: 95 October 2004 Category: Best Current Practice A Mission Statement for the IETF Status of this Memo This document specifies an Internet Best Current Practices for the Internet Community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Copyright Notice Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004). Abstract This memo gives a mission statement for the IETF, tries to define the terms used in the statement sufficiently to make the mission statement understandable and useful, argues why the IETF needs a mission statement, and tries to capture some of the debate that led to this point. 1. Mission Statement The goal of the IETF is to make the Internet work better. The mission of the IETF is to produce high quality, relevant technical and engineering documents that influence the way people design, use, and manage the Internet in such a way as to make the Internet work better. These documents include protocol standards, best current practices, and informational documents of various kinds. The IETF will pursue this mission in adherence to the following cardinal principles: Open process - any interested person can participate in the work, know what is being decided, and make his or her voice heard on the issue. Part of this principle is our commitment to making our documents, our WG mailing lists, our attendance lists, and our meeting minutes publicly available on the Internet. Technical competence - the issues on which the IETF produces its documents are issues where the IETF has the competence needed to speak to them, and that the IETF is willing to listen to Alvestrand Best Current Practice [Page 1] RFC 3935 IETF Mission Statement October 2004 technically competent input from any source. Technical competence also means that we expect IETF output to be designed to sound network engineering principles - this is also often referred to as "engineering quality". Volunteer Core - our participants and our leadership are people who come to the IETF because they want to do work that furthers the IETF's mission of "making the Internet work better". Rough consensus and running code - We make standards based on the combined engineering judgement of our participants and our real- world experience in implementing and deploying our specifications. Protocol ownership - when the IETF takes ownership of a protocol or function, it accepts the responsibility for all aspects of the protocol, even though some aspects may rarely or never be seen on the Internet. Conversely, when the IETF is not responsible for a protocol or function, it does not attempt to exert control over it, even though it may at times touch or affect the Internet. 2. Definition of Terms Mission: What an organization sets out to do. This is in contrast to its goal (which is what it hopes to achieve by fulfilling its mission), and to its activities (which is what specific actions it takes to achieve its mission). The Internet: A large, heterogeneous collection of interconnected systems that can be used for communication of many different types between any interested parties connected to it. The term includes both the "core Internet" (ISP networks) and "edge Internet" (corporate and private networks, often connected via firewalls, NAT boxes, application layer gateways and similar devices). The Internet is a truly global network, reaching into just about every country in the world. The IETF community wants the Internet to succeed because we believe that the existence of the Internet, and its influence on economics, communication, and education, will help us to build a better human society. Standard: As used here, the term describes a specification of a protocol, system behaviour or procedure that has a unique identifier, and where the IETF has agreed that "if you want to do this thing, this is the description of how to do it". It does not imply any attempt by the IETF to mandate its use, or any attempt to police its usage - only that "if you say that you are doing this according to this standard, do it this way". The benefit of Alvestrand Best Current Practice [Page 2] RFC 3935 IETF Mission Statement October 2004 a standard to the Internet is in interoperability - that multiple products implementing a standard are able to work together inShow full document text